EARLY YEARS
derivation has been conclusively shown to be impossible, "philologically, as well as from a Hindu religious point of view," by a learned Hindu writer, but there seems no apparent reason why the name may not have originated from the position of the village on the bank of the Khal, Khal-Kutta, where the creek or stream had cut its way in some great flood, or had been cut by the villagers to drain their low-lying fields.
The third village, Govindpore, was like Chuttanutty, situated on the river-bank, but considerably lower down. The site is occupied by Fort William. All round this village, extending from the Calcutta Khal ("the Creek") to the Govindpore Nullah (Tolly's Nullah), covering the whole of the maidan of the present day, spread a jungle tract of heavy undergrowth and giant trees, the remains of a once dense forest of Soondrie trees, similar to, and possibly a portion of, the forests which give their name to the Soonderbunds or Soondrie forests of the Gangetic Delta. This jungle was intersected by numerous creeks and watercourses, where the muddy yellow waters of the Hughly swept in with the rising tide, or ebbed with the drainage of the surrounding rain-drenched country. A desolate tract, it was haunted by wild beasts, and by armed bands of robbers more to be dreaded than they. These
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